‘Saying something is cringe is cringe, old man...’
It’s indicative of changing cinematic tastes that in the ’90s and ’00s you couldn’t leave your house for fear of tripping up and falling into a cinema showing a romantic comedy just like this one: two megastars, a simple premise, meetcute, conflict, resolution. It was a winning formula that earned the big studios millions of dollars whilst also being derided by critics and (unfairly) looked down upon by much of the film community. Had it been released during that halcyon era of romcoms, Anyone But You would probably have made a modest profit and then been resigned to the annals of cinematic history forever. In a world utterly starved of original stories featuring movie stars, however, Anyone But You generated plenty of buzz and $220 million worldwide at the box office. It’s also pretty good…
Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) meet in a coffee shop in an opening scene for the ages. In just a few lines of dialogue, writer-director Will Gluck (he shares a co-writing credit with Ilana Wolpert) establishes that Bea is a lawyer and a bit of a klutz and that Ben is charming and affable. They hook up. It all goes well. They fall out. They are forced to hang out again after both being invited to the same destination wedding. Upon arrival, they decide to pretend to be a couple for reasons that never entirely make sense but also don’t matter, and Sydney (the Australian city not the actress) provides a gorgeous backdrop for various comic set pieces.
While I’ve got plenty of praise for Anyone But You, let me be clear here. This is not some groundbreaking, reinvention of the romcom wheel. The script isn’t particularly funny. The recurring jokes fall flat. The supporting cast are utterly anonymous (aside from Dermot Mulroney who has a blast as Bea’s beleaguered father, Leo). What makes this film work is as obvious as it is predictable – Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney are movie stars and their star wattage carries the film through its rockier moments. They share an electric chemistry (only emphasised by their whirlwind promotional tour). They wring plenty of humour out of set pieces and dialogue that lesser actors would struggle with. Honestly, you could put these two in anything and they would be watchable. It helps that they are two of the most attractive people on earth, of course, and the camera loves them, but they are both capable of being more than just eye candy.
Powell is a student of Tom Cruise (the world’s greatest movie star) and with this film, he demonstrates that he is able to pull off an out-and-out comedy in the same way that Cruise did in his earliest roles. Provided he doesn’t get cancelled or something, Powell (and Sweeney) are set to rule the silver screen for at least the next decade.
